Staying calm

You probably never thought of TypeTalk as an anger management tool?

There are not many things that anger me, but insurance companies are one of them. I always get annoyed whenever I have to renew the car or house insurance. Anyway, this time I rang them because I’d landed the car in a big ditch and it was damaged.

The accident happened when I was on the way to pick up the boys from school and fortunately I was alone in the car. A fine penetrating rain had been falling for a few days and the grass verges had attained the consistency of melting ice-cream.

I must have got fairly close to the mess as suddenly the car started to slide and I lost control. The car was brought to a halt by a combination of the ditch and a hedge – it wasn’t a pretty sight; scratches dents and a broken wing mirror. I was shaken but unhurt and was able to call the insurance company only an hour later.

After a lengthy wait and never ending security questions I was asked what had happened and explained: ‘Very wet and muddy narrow lane, car sliding …’ The response appeared letter by letter on my screen: ‘This is classified as a false claim.’

Now that confused me and I told her so. ‘You cannot make a claim against the weather’ she said.

Well, that clarifies it I suppose!? As I reached for the talk button, I had enough time to calm my temper and I managed to explain to her that I wasn’t making a claim against the weather. ‘I had an accident and was claiming on my insurance and you asked me what happened……’

If I had not had the delay of the TypeTalk transcription and the fact I had to press a button before speaking I think her reply would had made me more than mad ‘did you lose control of the car at any time?.’

I responded in an almost sane voice to the insane question: ‘I want you to understand that I was at not at any stage intending to land the car in a ditch.’